A couple days ago I made "Fotato" Soup out of my Trim Healthy Mama Cookbook. It was the 2nd time I made it and based on the popularity of it the first time (they licked the skillet clean!), I doubled the batch. I wanted to ensure that my husband had something yummy and soothing in his stomach when he got home from work (more on that another day). I found that I didn't have any chicken broth, so I sent my kids to get some at the local store. I was glad for them to go so I could get the cauliflower chopped up and ready to go while they were gone.
When I saw the broth sitting on my counter, I thought to myself, "I've made this before! I can do this! Why should I use this store bought junk instead of knowing what is going in to my food?!" So, I took out the only bit of meat I had in the house with bones in it--a 6 pound whole chicken--to defrost. We had it for dinner last night and whatever was left--carcass and all--went back in to the roaster to get all yummy and delicious with lots of garlic, Himalayan Pink Salt, thyme, sage, and some pepper...and of course lots of water filled to an inch within the brim of the 18 quart roaster. I turned it on to 225°F and from 5:00PM to around noon today the carcass and leftover meat simmered and made some lovely golden bone broth for my family.
When I do broth, I have 2 different ways that I can do it. This time, since there was so much of it, I chose to do both. I had a limited amount of freezer containers and didn't want to go to the store to buy more. I had 4 quart containers and 3 pint containers, which meant labeling with contents and their date of being frozen. This way everyone knows that these will need to be used within 6 months of the date on the container. I let them sit on the counter until they are cool and then line them along the inside of my freezer door where they fit perfectly.
With the other amount of broth, I had to get the pressure canner out along with unearthing the canning lids and rings (quite the challenge when things were not exactly put away because a place for them had not been established yet. Oops!) So, finding the lids and rings, we got everything moving, sterilized, and in to the pressure canner with only a couple inches in the bottom.
They spent 3 hours in the pressure canner at 10 pounds of pressure to ensure there is no food poisoning to occur. We will label these with their contents once they cool by tomorrow morning as well as their date, like the ones with the freezer container. I make sure to leave them on the counter over night to cool so that they seal. If they don't seal, I can pop them right in to the refrigerator without skipping a beat and saving the lovely contents for the next meal.
I've made broth with chicken breasts before. I usually simmer the chicken for 2-3 hours, then freeze. Very few times have I pressure canned it, but this time I did.
My plans for further collecting bones to make in to broth are to go to the local butcher and see if they will sell me bones with very little meat on them for my bone broth. I'm going to try to process this once every couple of weeks to make sure we always have bone broth, chicken, ham, beef, and whatever else I can find. If/when I get the bones from the butcher I'm going to freeze the bones, so I can put them in to my roaster, fill it with water and let it cook for a couple days. I'm going to get more organized so I can make sure the broth is done in the canner by a certain time so we don't have to worry about missing church. Yes, I messed up. But, we were able to reclaim the time by having some card playing time while the younger 2 finished their school work.
Now on to garden planning! Oh! And I'm getting an idea of what to do for my canning pantry!
What do you do for food preservation?
God Bless,
2 comments:
If you get bones, you should season and roast them before making the both. It will bring out a much fuller flavor.
For the chicken bone broth my daughter cooked a whole chicken and stuffed it with brown rice, quinoa and seasoned it with salt, pepper, thyme, sage and rubbed the chicken with butter. I added mushrooms, celery, and onion to it once we were done with dinner as well as about 1/2 cup minced garlic, himalayan pink salt, pepper, and more sage and thyme. I let the carcass, drippings, seasonings, and water cook low and slow 19 hours in the roaster. It worked rather well and I can't wait to make more broth. I know that may sound strange, but with as much as we use, it helps to have it home made, knowing what has gone in to it. :O)
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